Multi-Tenant LLM API Infrastructure: What Breaks at Scale
· 9 min read
Most teams start with a single API key for their LLM provider, shared across everything. It works until it doesn't. Then one afternoon, a bulk job in the data pipeline consumes the entire rate limit and the user-facing chat feature goes silent. Or finance asks you to break down the $40k LLM bill by team, and you realize you have no way to answer that question.
A production API gateway in front of your LLM providers solves both of these problems — but it introduces a category of complexity that most teams underestimate until they're already in trouble.
